Occupation Continues for 2nd Day at UC Tract in Albany

The crop-planting occupation of a University of California tract in Albany by Occupy the Farm activists continued without interference into its second day Sunday afternoon.

UC Berkeley police, who issued periodic warnings Saturday that the activists were trespassing and face possible arrest, maintained observation of the lot on Monroe Street and San Pablo Avenue, where UC Berkeley has proposed building a Sprouts Farmers Market.

Occupy the Farm staged a three-week occupation and crop-planting a year ago on the Gill Tract agricultural research field, which is near the site that group occupied Saturday. They were eventually evicted by campus authorities.

A Patch visit about 3:15 p.m. Sunday to the new occupation site, next to the University Village graduate student housing complex, found about 28 people at the plot, some manning tables for information and food and others continuing to till the soil and plant crops.

Nearly 100 people marched to the site Saturday afternoon and began pulling weeds and planting seedlings. A number of the activists were in San Franciso Sunday afternoon for another action in support of Esperanza gardens near Bryant and 18th streets.

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